Friday, August 01, 2008

assistants are me

So a few weeks ago when Joe and I were traveling down to St. George we got talking about my idea that I had a few years ago about where everyone I know would give me 50 bucks a month if I ran their errands for them while they were at work. By the end of the conversation Joe totally convinced me to try it out now that I have the time. What the heck. Let's give it a month or so.

So instead of researching the market, or developing a web site or setting up a paypal account; I spent the past few days working on a silly commercial. I figured people I know could show it to their bosses and other people they work with or something. Then they can explain to the people they showed it to that this concept could go far beyond bar mitzvahs. I can actually save people money because I'll organize coupons for once (who does that?) and if volume happens, I can get some sweet bulk rates on things.

Of course if this works there are still dozens of things that still must happen. I gotta set up a payment system, possibly set up a collateral system, set up a web site probably and totally lay out available services. That's the fun stuff. It all depends on how wet my foot gets when I dip it in the water. If I sense a positive reaction from this, I'll concentrate hard on solidifying all these things and also figuring out how to get more word out.

Yeah, I know. You probably hate the name "Assistants Are Me." It's play on the word "army" in case you somehow didn't realize. The name is subject to change.

Oh, and this is my first foray into blue screen film making. It's pretty lame. Thanks to Pete for helping me shoot and providing the blue sheet. Next time I'm bringing in a big blue piece of sheetrock or something. The video is supposed to be cheesy, but cleaning up that background island scene as much as it is cleaned up was a total mess. I pretty much had to re-draw the palm trees pixel by pixel and then frame by frame. It's so embarrassing how long it took.

Jon, is it conceivable that for each customer you will buy more gas for your car than you get paid? Or are you expenses covered? Also, what if I need you in Hawaii? $35 is a good deal but if I have to fly you out then that's no good.

pete wasn't doing too much laughing. i think it's probably because we didn't have the pongy music in yet.

plan on it kristi.

the idea is that if i got enough people to do this, there would be an increase in gas efficiency because i'd hit several peoples' errands at once. but yeah, there's lots of possibilities for waste. service just goes to slc. sorry.

Awesome commercial! I totally want to hire you for January and maybe a few other months. January is my worst month at work and it would be so great to have an assistant to do my shopping and dry cleaning pick up. Count me in!

I love this idea and I totally want to use you. And I do mean use, because $35 a month (even $50) is so cheap for all the errands I'm going to make you do. Pay my bills, balance my checkbook, get takeout whenever I am working late, write angry letters to people who piss me off (e.g. airlines), take my kids to extracurricular activities, send birthday cards, internet shoe shop (I do love doing that, but I've got to get my money's worth), and I'm sure I'll think of more. I think your commercial will get you lots of business and fame and fortune. And then maybe you can become one of Kathy Griffin's assistant's assistants. Btw, you should have a contract limiting what sort of stuff you do and a maximum time/hours per month. Or you can do like public relations and have a monthly retainer that varies depending on how much you're going to do for them. If you give me free errands for life, I'll draft the legal agreement for you.

For $35, can I hire you to not bother or contact me for a whole month?!

I think the first thing I will hire you to do is to fill in all those word verifications on blogs and webpages. Seriously, at like 4 seconds a page, and like 3 or 4 of those a day, we are realistically looking at a net time savings of like an hour and a half a year.Are you kidding me?!! "assistants are me" is the real deal!

Good luck. I kind of like running my own errands, but when it gets to be a bore I'll keep you in mind.

And if Assistants are Me wants to sponsor the program some day let me know. Not really though. I should reserve that for church related endeavors. But if you have a cool shot of the pinewood derby, I could have the EQ sponsor a program.